1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates a blower unit for a range hood and a temporary fixing structure of the blower unit against the hood.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is already provided a range hood of a type in which a hood is laterally bridged between wall cabinets and the front surface of the hood is provided with a front panel of a canopy.
In this type of range hood, the blower unit is fixed to the hood, wherein oily smoke generated during cooking is absorbed by a gas discharging device within the blower unit and the smoke is discharged out of the gas discharging duct connected to the gas discharging duct coupler.
Even in this type of range hood, a person must observe UL (Underwriters Laboratories) Standards.
In this UL Standards, there is a provision saying that a connected portion between an external power supply cord suspended from a ceiling of a building and an inner cord must be capable of being acknowledged while a separate member differing from the case (body) of the blower unit is removed and no tension is applied.
The prior art product was made such that a conduit pipe suspended from a ceiling or the like of a building was connected to a case (body) of the blower unit and the power supply cord in the conduit pipe and the inner cord were bundled (connected).
In such a structure as described above, when the connected portions are to be inspected, the front panel is at first removed from the lower side, and various kinds of composing members of the higher level are required to be removed in sequence, resulting in that the maintenance work becomes quite troublesome.
Even in this type of range hood, it is a general fixing structure in which the unit is freely fitted from lower side to the fixing port opened at the hood and the blower unit is assembled under this state.
However, there is provided a practical situation in which the blower unit is made such that various kinds of members such as a gas discharging fan, its fan motor and a fan casing are assembled in the case and its weight is quite heavy (8 kg to 10 kg).
Due to this fact, when the blower unit was assembled, it became an essential requirement that the blower unit itself is supported from below with one person and other several workers perform a screw fixing against the hood, resulting in that it required a large-scaled work as well as several workers and so this was not preferable in view of a labor cost.
This invention has been invented in reference to the aforesaid circumstances of the prior art and it is an object of the present invention to provide a blower unit for a range hood which is in compliance with the provision of UL Standards and in which a work for connection between a power supply cord suspended from a ceiling of a building and an inner cord and a maintenance work for the connected portion can be performed easily from outside.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a temporary fixing structure for a blower unit in which an assembling workability of the blower unit to the hood is improved.
As a technical means applied for solving the above objects, the gist of the blower unit consists in a blower unit for a range hood which is freely fitted to a fixing port opened at a hood and having a gas discharging multi-vane fan and a fan motor or the like stored therein, wherein inner cords are taken out externally of a taking-out port opened at a top plate of a case of a unit member having the multi-vane fan and the fan motor or the like stored therein, a cover fixing in a communicated manner the lower end of a supporter for the external cords is arranged at the upper surface of the top plate of the case, the cover is constituted by a plurality of decomposable divided members removably attached to the upper surface of the top plate of the case and said cover has at its inner side a storing space for a connected portion between said inner cords and external cords.
In view of the foregoing, it is also apparent that the plurality of divided members can be divided into two or several segments.
In addition, the outer cord supporter is a conduit (a power supply cord or an earth cord is wired in the conduit) suspended from a ceiling or a side wall of a building or an integral wire in which either the power supply cord or the earth cord is coated by an insulating film, their extremity ends are of threaded cylinders, they are inserted into the connected holes opened at the required divided member or fixing recesses and they are fixed with nut from inside.
According to the aforesaid technical means, the divided member becoming a top plate level reference near the inner cord taken out of the case of the unit member is fixed at first after the blower unit is assembled to the hood and before the front panel of the canopy is arranged and then the outer cord supporter is fixed to the divided member.
Then, after the terminal of the outer cord or the like supported by the supporter and the terminal of the inner cord taken out are bundled (connected) under utilization of a connecting space of the inner space of the divided member, the divided member to be fixed later is removably attached to the top plate of the case to constitute the cover and then the connected portion is stored in the storing space.
In the case of the conduit pipe, the outer cord or the like and the inner cord or the like are drawn out of the divided member fixed at first under utilization of a degree of freedom of taking-out and it can be bundled (connected) to the inner cord under a utilization of an open space. With such an arrangement as above, the wire bundling work (wire connecting operation) becomes more easy.
In addition, second aspect of the present invention has a gist according to first aspect of the present invention, wherein said unit member has a volute plate assembled around the multi-vane fan, a partition plate having a suction port in correspondence with the multi-vane fan is fixed in an inner fixed manner from a lower releasing section of the case to enclose and form a fan casing.
According to the aforesaid technical means, the fan casing is constituted by the volute plate assembled around the multi-vane fan, the partition plate arranged at a front side (lower side) of the volute plate and the case, and then a heavy weight and a large-sized device of a type in which the fan casing is separately stored in it are avoided.
The fixing structure for the blower has a gist in a blower unit for a range hood according to first or second aspect of the present invention, wherein an inverse L-shaped piece is inserted into each of opposing side plates of said case of the unit member having a multi-vane fan and a fan motor or the like under a state of which horizontal section is protruded outwardly in such a manner that it can be turned half, said horizontal section is turned half outside in a vertical direction when the unit member is freely fitted to said fixing port from below so as not to prohibit its free fitting, after the free fitting, it is turned half in an inverse direction and the horizontal section is mounted on the upper surface of said hood.
In view of the foregoing, the side plate where the inverse L-shaped piece is inserted in such a manner that it may be turned half is defined as a lower level of the partition plate.
In addition, the inverse L-shaped piece is freely set such that a plurality of horizontal sections spaced apart from the vertical section are extended in a right angle or the horizontal sections are extended at a right angle with an equal length to the vertical section. In this case, it is satisfactory that the insertion holes are opened at the side plate of the case corresponding to the horizontal section.
According to the aforesaid technical means, when the unit member having the multi-vane fan and the fan motor or the like is freely fitted from below to the fixing port of the hood, the horizontal section of the inverse L-shaped piece is turned half in a vertical direction so as not to become an obstacle against its free fitting, and the horizontal section is turned half in a reverse direction when the horizontal section reaches the rear side of the hood, the horizontal section is mounted on the upper surface of the top plate of the hood at the edge of the fixing port to perform a temporary fixing so as to prevent the heavy unit member from being dropped.
After this operation, the unit member is fixed to the top plate of the hood and lastly the front panel having a grease filter and an operating section or the like is fixed to complete the assembling work for the blower unit.
In addition, the inverse L-shaped piece according to third aspect of the present invention is further preferable if the horizontal section is light in respect to the vertical section.
According to the aforesaid technical means, when the hood is freely fitted to the fixing port, the horizontal section of the inverse L-shaped piece is abutted against the edge of the fixing port, turned half automatically in a vertical direction not to prevent any free fitting of it and after free fitting, the horizontal section is returned back to its horizontal state while being turned automatically in a reverse direction due to the weight of the vertical section. Thus, the inverse L-shaped piece is not intentionally turned, but the heavy unit member is temporarily fixed.